Legend of the GLORIO Heroes Episode 10: Reuenthal Pumps and Dumps

We continue across the sea of stars, where Gee and Iro watch the seminal 1988-1997 Legend of the Galactic Heroes OVA a few episodes at a time. Keep an eye out for this podcast between main installments of The GLORIO Chat as we work our way through the history books.

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I really can’t help but think that you expect too much from Reinhard. Changes from absolute monarchy to democracy don’t happen overnight (hell, my country went from one-party “communist” autocracy to democracy to pretty much openly fascist autocracy within 28 years), especially when the power is still in the hand of one person… who is actually not all that much interested in bringing about democracy. Reinhard’s goal, on the short term anyway, was never creating democracy and freedom for people, it as to do away with the hereditary aristocracy and the system where people can inherit power and wealth and influence. Reinhard is not a revolutionary, he’s a reformer who, for all his progressiveness, is in many ways the product of the system.

As for likeable characters… this is of course very subjective, because again, if you tend to like characters whose morals and opinions resonate with your own then yes, I suppose it’s difficult to like many of the Empire characters. But personally I really like most of them, and Reuenthal and Mittermeier are actually two of my favorites. Sure, Reuenthal is a hot, hot mess and if he was real I’d hate his guts. But since he’s not real I can afford being interested in him, the many ways he’s messed up and his dynamics with Mittermeier and Reinhard. But then again, I suppose we like different things about the story and the characters…

By the way, on an “ummm, actually…” note: perhaps the OVA or the translation didn’t make this clear, but Reuenthal’s heterochromia is just a genetic quirk, it’s not supposed to allude to anything about his parentage. It’s just that his mother was ignorant and superstitious and thought that was the case. Also, he’s absolutely not a pick-up artist type, more like he’s just honestly a dick with serious mommy issues that he’s self-medicating instead of just going to therapy or something. Incidentally, he’s fairly self-aware as well. Also also, the source of his issues is that mommy never loved him… in fact tried to kill him when he was a baby to keep her affair a secret, then killed herself, which in turn made his father resent him. Like, you don’t have to take it seriously, because it is fairly OTT, but it’s not as stupid as you made it sound like. (And shit like that does happen IRL, ironically enough. Just from my family and friend circle I could list similarly messed-up stories, only lacking the attempted child murder.)

I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s just me interpreting things the wrong way, but over the past podcast I’ve been noticing a sort of dismissive attitude regarding certain aspects of the story/characters. And sure, this is entirely subjective! I’m not trying to say that they’re watching the show the wrong way or anything, we all enjoy different aspects of the media we consume. But LoGH is, in many ways, very character driven, considering that one of the key aspects of the story is how history is in many ways shaped by people making decisions based on subjective urges or petty grudges or not well thought-out ideas, etc. This is especially apparent on the Empire’s side, and for this reason I think it’s important to be open to the characters being, well, characters and not plot devices, so to speak.

Like, with Reuenthal above – his backstory may be over the top dramatic, but the point is that he has a background that twisted his personality in ways that made him very successful in his chosen career, but it also influences his life and career and yes, history, in certain ways. By dismissing his backstory as ridiculous and pointless I’m not sure it’s possible to appreciate him as a character and his role in the story as intended. Similarly with Reinhard, they don’t seem to be taking into account many aspects of him as a character. and that is going to be an issue going ahead.

Again, I’m not trying to say “you’re watching the show wrong!” it’s just that perhaps a shift in expectations might be a good thing? I don’t know.

I wouldn’t say we think of Reuenthal’s backstory as “pointless”, but it’s definitely ridiculous. As for Reinhard’s sudden reforms, we’re more baffled by how quickly they seem to have taken place (it’s been what, 90 days or so in-universe?) rather than upset the Empire isn’t a perfect beautiful democracy overnight, which I doubt is even likely to happen at all. We’re only a quarter of the way through the show here.

We take a somewhat casual, irreverent tone because the podcast is meant to be honest reactions and discussion of LOGH between friends. We’re fully capable of thinking something is silly or ridiculous while also understanding and enjoying it as an important part of the show, and I’d say we even enjoy it more because it occasionally gets so over the top.

I don’t think Reinhard plans to give his people actual freedom from him. When he talked about hating Rudolf he explained it as less hating autocracy and more of Rudolf wasting all of his accumulated power.